Q. What has been the influence of Victor Navasky on your work and career?
Victor started The Nation lnternship program in 1978, soon after
becoming editor of the magazine. Since that time, the program--to be
renamed the Victor S, Navasky lnternship Program this Fall-- has
produced an extraordinary and far-flung network of reporters, writers,
editors, thinkers, politicians and activists. That internship changed my life. I embarked on my informal political
and journalistic education at The Nation (with Victor as lead
professor), and it led to a "real" job a few years later--as assistant
editor at The Nation.
I'd just started my internship at The Nation in the fall of 1980 when
Victor asked me to come to his office to meet the widow of the
Nation's former editor Carey McWilliams. lris needed someone to
help organize her late husband's papers and Victor thought I'd be
just the right person. I was finishing my undergraduate thesis on the
McCarthy era, and in my intern application I'd explained that I wanted
to work at a magazine which fought so courageously for civil liberties
during those scoundrel times. I considered McWilliams --and Victor,
whose magisterial book "Naming Names" drew me to The Nation--
lead watchmen during (and after) those dark nights.
Years later, when Victor passed the baton and I became editor and
then publisher, I came to realize how unusual a mentor Victor was.
He was a true believer in independence --of journals, of countries and
of those who sought his mentorship. He trusted you to make up your
own mind, and he wasn't in the business of imposing linear advice.
Maybe that's because one of "his* mentors was the esteemed,
kibitzing philosopher Sidney Morgenbesser, who when asked if he
disagreed with Chairman Mao's saying that a proposition can be true
or false at the same time, Morgenbesser replied, " I do and I don't."
Victor taught me to sharpen skills necessary for editing a magazine
as tempestuous in its politics and personalities as The Nation. I once
asked him why he seemed to have a disinclination for confrontation.He told me that if by confrontation I meant shouting and accusation,
he tried to avoid it. He believed it was possible to confront with
civility. And confront with civility he did, as I hope I do.
But Victor also taught me that "our job" as editors is to decide who
should and shouldn't be a columnist, how often the column should
run, what it should cover, what the political and cultural mix of the
magazine should be, and the hundreds of other editorial (and
.interconnected) decisions that go into putting the magazine out.
Critics, he once told me, will weigh in but "history will decide how well
we did our job." There are some decisions on which it is important
and wise to have a consensus, he believed, and there are others on
which it would be a disaster to try to reach consensus. In that spirit (and for other reasons), I once described Victor as
"velvet steel." There's his genial temperament but there's also the
steeliness at the core, which I have an affection for, but it can't be
ignored. (if you want to see both sides on display, ask him about
Alger Hiss.) |I learned from Victor that you just can't be editor of The
Nation without having steel in your core and spine. (An appreciation
of vodka--his brand is Grey Goose, mine Stoly--also keeps the spine
and spirit strong.) If Victor has an "ism" (and he's been accused of having a few) I've
always believed it's humanism. And as a mentor, a friend,and as a
force in New York's publishing world, Victor is also that rare person
who is fierce in his convictions, and kind and compassionate in his
personal relations.
He's also remarkably responsive, accessible,
patient, self-deprecating, doesn't let petty matters get to him and
laughs easily. (l still need mentoring from Victor on how to be better
at those last two.)
Over the years, I've gathered a small file of my correspondence with
Victor. These are emails, scrawled handwritten notes on yellow legal
pads, even sketches and notes on napkÍns. One of the emails goes
like this: "Katrina--Don't despair. No advice--I think what you are
doing is exactly right." While I have no memory of what I was despairing of, I do know that the message captures Victor's inimitable
approach to mentorship.
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